This sermon was preached at St Peter’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
This wonderful Gospel that we have read today begins in a way that strikes us as a bit strange: it begins with fear. We read that the disciples were altogether there on the evening of Easter Sunday, on the evening when Jesus rose from the dead, and the doors were locked and they were fearful, they were scared of the Jews.
Later on, we can go and read in the Book of Acts how the disciples went and preached with boldness and confidence and fearlessly, but here there is no boldness and confidence—there is only fear.
This is important because we have to realise that Jesus did not choose his twelve disciples because they were confident and bold and fearless. No – he chose them in all their hopelessness, in all their uselessness, in all their fear.
But you see, Jesus doesn’t want disciples who are already strong and confident in themselves. People like that are no use to him. Jesus only chooses weak people and then when he gives the Holy Spirit, he gives all the strength that the disciples need.
This is so important – but we might ask: Are the disciples really all that weak? Well, they didn’t always think so. When Jesus was going on his way to die and before he was arrested, the disciples said: we are going to be strong for you, Jesus. We are going to make a decision to follow you, Jesus. Peter says: Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away. Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. And we read: And all the disciples said the same.
But Jesus has a different plan for them. He says: You will all fall away because of me this night...but he also gives them a wonderful promise of comfort and says, but after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.
And so what happens to the disciples? As soon as the first sign of danger comes and the crowd comes with swords and clubs, they all run away. And then Peter also denies Jesus three times. And we read that when the rooster crowed to remind Peter of Jesus’ prophecy, Jesus turns from the other side of the room and looks at him. And Peter goes out and weeps bitterly. He goes outside and cries like a baby.
Jesus turns and looks at Peter as if to say to him: You are a sinner, and I am your Saviour. There is only one Lamb of God and that is me—it is not you. I do not need you to come and die with me—I will die by myself and I will be the Saviour of the world. And if you are going to be saved by me, you cannot be a Saviour with me—you must be a sinner. There’s only two possibilities in Christ’s church—there’s only two categories. Either we have to be a Saviour, or we have to be a sinner. If we are a Saviour, then we are a church withoug Jesus. It’s as if to say: Who needs Jesus, if we are here? But if we believe that we are sinners, then we are a church with a living Jesus.
And so, here we see the disciples gathered together and they are scared. They have locked the doors to hide themselves from the Jewish people. Jesus was dead, and he was crucified—maybe they thought—we are next. And so our reading begins with these disciples gathered together, fearful, failures, sinners.
And then a wonderful thing happens. Jesus arrives. Jesus came and stood among them and says to them: Peace be with you. I have died for you. I have made peace between you and God through my blood, and now I have risen from the dead and come and bring my peace to you.
Now, how did Jesus get into the room if the doors were locked? He didn’t break the door down. He simply came and stood there. Jesus has a human body and he is a real man. Normally, a man can’t walk through a wall or a door. But Jesus is also true God and he can do whatever he wants. Already, he had walked through a closed door. When he rose from the dead, the angel rolled the stone away, not to let Jesus out, but to show that he wasn’t there. Jesus had already risen from the dead, and now he had walked out of the tomb through the closed tomb.
And now, on Easter Sunday evening, Jesus walks in through a closed door, and he says: Peace be with you. Maybe the disciples thought—this is a ghost. Maybe they thought—only ghosts can walk through doors and through walls. But then Jesus shows them that he is not a ghost. We read: When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Maybe the disciples thought—“We are failures! We have let Jesus down—and now his ghost has come to punish us!” No—Jesus doesn’t say, “You rotten fools—now I’ve got you!” He says: Peace, peace be with you. And he shows them where this peace comes from: he shows them his hands and his side. Jesus shows them the wounds that bled for them and in the wounds of Jesus, we have all the peace we need.
What a wonderful gift! What a wonderful Saviour we have here! What a gentle, loving shepherd we have who comes and speaks his peace to his sheep. Even today, Jesus comes and stands among us—he enters through the doors and the walls to stand right here. And he meets with you with all your sin and with all your failure and all your guilt. But Jesus wants you to know that he is here—so he makes sure that you know this by speaking to us. Jesus puts his pastor here to speak not his opinions, but the words of Jesus. He speaks: I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He speaks: I forgive you all your sins. He speaks: Take, eat, this is my body given for you, and my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus has walked through closed doors, and now as true God and true man he walks into the bread and wine through his word, to speak and to bring his peace to you. What a wonderful Lord Jesus we have! We read: the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
Now, we read something very special. It says: Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”
I remember hearing from a friend of mine how he was walking with someone around North Adelaide. And my friend was trying to encourage the other person in their faith. And they came to St Peter’s Cathedral up there and were going to walk past it, but my friend said: Why don’t we go inside and we can say a prayer together. And the person said to him, “I can’t go in there! The walls would fall down on me. The roof would cave in on my head.” And my friend said, “No—Jesus is here, and we can go in with him.” And so they linked arms, the two people, and they went into the church together.
This reminds me of our reading here. If we are going to enter into God’s presence, anyone would think he would destroy us. God is perfect—we are not. Even if there were the tiniest drop of sin, God should destroy us and punish us. A cup of water with one drop of poison needs to be thrown out. But, there’s more than a drop—don’t you know it? Our whole heart, our whole life, all our thinking has been poisoned by Satan, and we have no right to come to God and enter into his presence, and to pray, and to be saved and go to heaven. We sinners have no right.
The only way any of these things are going to work is if Jesus actually forgives us. And he does. And now, he sends his apostles out everywhere to speak this forgiveness. Jesus is true God, and when he speaks forgiveness, this is God the Father’s forgiveness, and it comes with all the power of the Holy Spirit.
And so now, Jesus gives the same Holy Spirit to the apostles. He breathes on them and says: Receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus and the Father have linked arms. Everything they do they do together. And now Jesus says, As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And so now, Jesus links arms with the apostles. They are going to speak the word of Jesus. Whoever hears them is going to hear Jesus. St John says: We are from God. Whoever listens to God listens to us; whoever is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
And so now, we pastors—what are we supposed to preach and teach? Well, we link arms with the apostles and we speak the same thing they did. And when we speak the word of the apostles, then we are speaking the words of Jesus with the power of the Holy Spirit. And all of us who come and listen in the church? How do you know that this word you are speaking is from the Holy Spirit? Well, this word must be the same word that Jesus gave Peter, James and John, and all the apostles to speak.
But Jesus doesn’t send them out to say anything. He sends them out and said: If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.
Now, are the apostles called to be tyrants and to say—today, I’m going to forgive you. But not you! No—they are called to administer this forgiveness—but with a proper basis, not according to their own ideas. So what is this basis?
Well, let me say something about the devil. The Word of God comes with all the power of the Holy Spirit. But the devil’s power also comes from God’s Word—but from twisting it. So in the Garden of Eden, God spoke His Word to Adam and says: The tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. And then the devil comes and says: Did God really say? He sows doubt in God’s word. And then he twists it so that it says exactly the opposite of what God says. The devil says: You will not surely die.
And so, when we look at God’s commandments, we say: Jesus, I was wrong, but you are right. I am a sinner, you are my Saviour. If this is what we say, then Jesus promises his forgiveness to us. And he says to us: You are a sinner—that’s true. But I have a new word to speak to you—the forgiveness of sins. And I don’t want you to imagine this forgiveness. I want you to hear it. I’m going to put this word into your pastor’s mouth, so that his forgiveness is my forgiveness.
But if we want to say: no—God’s commandments are wrong and I am right, if we say—no God, you need to change your commandments, and listen to me, then we don’t need Jesus. And if we don’t need Jesus, there’s no forgiveness for you. And Jesus puts this word into the mouth of his pastors too—he wants people to be called to repentance.
But then, maybe we think—I am weak in faith, I want to do better, but I keep on falling. I’m not a good Christian yet, maybe Jesus rejects me.—Don’t despair. The devil doesn’t want you to know and feel your sin. Only Christians know this—and if you worry about your sin, then this forgiveness if sor you, in fact, it’s precisely for people like you. Jesus has risen from the dead. He has won this forgiveness for you with his blood and with his wounds. He has died a sinner’s death so that he can link arms with you and present you to the Father. Now he wants to show you his wounds, and remind you of them, that these hands, these feet, this side shed the holy and precious blood that paid for each and every single sin. But this wonderful fact is not kept quiet in heaven. Jesus wants God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus doesn’t simply want the angels to know that he died for you—he wants this forgiveness to be spoken to you, so that you can hear it and believe it. And when in all your weakness, you hear your weak, sinful pastor say to you, “I forgive you all your sins”, then you can be certain that this is God’s will on earth as in heaven. You have everything you need and you can go in peace.
You were baptised for the forgiveness of sins. We are going to receive Christ’s body and his blood today. But what are these things for? They are given for you and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.
But one last thing. Thomas was not there. And he thinks—I’d like to have this forgiveness too, but I don’t want pretend forgiveness. I don’t want a false prophet who says, “Peace, peace, where there’s no peace.” There’s no forgiveness if Jesus’ bones are still in the tomb. A dead Jesus is no use—and a ghost is no use. If you say you saw Jesus, I want to make sure it’s the real one.
So Thomas says: Unless I see in his hand the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.
Thomas! Come on! Isn’t it enough for you to see Jesus, but you want to stick your finger in his wounds and have a poke around!
And so, Jesus comes again next Sunday, one week later. And Jesus repeats his words: Peace be with you.
And then he says to Thomas: Put your finger here; and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.
All the time Thomas was whinging and complaining, Jesus was there, listening to it. Jesus knew exactly what Thomas wanted to do and now he lets him do exactly what he wanted. And so what does Thomas find in Jesus wounds? What does he find in there when he has a poke around? Forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. And we don’t want to put our finger in Jesus’ wounds—we want to hide our whole bodies and souls, and everything that we have in those wounds. In baptism, we enter into those wounds, and in the Lord’s Supper, we draw all of the blessings from them. We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
And so Thomas makes a wonderful confession of faith. My Lord and my God! Jesus is a true man with real wounds, born of the Virgin Mary, but he is also true God, raised from the dead, and filled with all the living power of the Holy Spirit to forgive your sin.
And no, here at the end, we learn something very special. Everyone who ever lives after the apostles is going to have take their word for it that Jesus rose from the dead. The difference between the apostles and we pastors today is this: I have not seen Jesus risen from the dead, but the apostles did and were sent to give an eyewitness. So when they went out they said: We have seen the Lord. But we say: The apostles saw the Lord, and we trust that what the apostles said is true, so that it is not the word of a man, but the word of God.
Thomas was called to be an apostle and so Jesus allowed him to see his wounds. But Jesus says: Everyone else after you will not have this luxury. They will have to take your word for it. Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
This is a great encouragement to us. What do we see in the world? Christians being killed here and there. People falling away from the faith. Faithful pastors falling foul of church politics. What do we see in our hearts? Sin, failure, weakness. But Jesus sees all of this, even if we can’t say him. And yet he gives us his word, so that in this life we hear him and believe in him, and in the next life, we will see him in heaven, face to face, with all of our sin completely washed away and all of our wounds transformed and transfigured and glorified into badges of victory, just like his wounds which poured out for us his holy and precious blood.
And so John writes at the end of our reading: Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Amen.
Dear Jesus, we believe that you are the Christ, our Lord and our God, and we ask that you would send us your Holy Spirit so that believing we may have life in your name. We confess that we are sinful, and that all our thoughts, our words and our actions are tainted, stained and poisoned by sin. But we confess that you are risen from the dead, so that we can have peace and forgiveness through your wounds. Strengthen our faith, dear Jesus, and turn all our fear into gladness, all our sorrows and troubles and worries into joy, the perfect joy of the resurrection. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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